Changed inners and outers last night but still really stiff to shift lever. No sharp bends or kinks.

XT 10spd clutch derailleur with works Oneup Rad cage

Sunrace 10 speed wide range cassette

1 x NW chainring

Any ideas. Do I need to dismantle and grease the shifter?

Were they like it from new? My XT shifter is the ’heaviest’ shifter I’ve ever used!

I guess they were a bit heavy since new but definitely a lot worse recently. The ferule where cable enters the derailleur looked deformed so I assumed swapping that and cables would sort it, but no. I wondered if the clutch or the lever needed maintenance and if so what.

Could you have routed the cable wrongly to the wrong side of the clamp bolt? Did you cut the new outers to the same length as the originals? With the cable disconnected can you move the mech easily by hand? If you try and shift with the cable disconnected is it easy?

I’ve used combos of inner cable and outer which were just shit and would not index properly and were far too sticky. I only use Shimano SP41 outer and Shimano teflon coated cables. No issues with this combo ever.

Short of spaying something in the lever, I’ve never done maintenance on them. Outer cable end caps on the piss, causing drag? Double check for thight corners is my guess.

Have you checked everything by hand to try and isolate the fault? i.e. discconnect cable then check moving the shift lever pulls the cable through ok? then move mech by hand?

Sometimes the cable can get jammed up in the shifter, especially if it’s not a particular well finished cable.

I’ll try that later. Thanks.

Try it with the clutch on and off as well.

What does it feel like with the clutch off?

What does it feel like with just the shifter pulling then inner gear cable?

What cables?

Shifts well without the clutch enabled. So what can I do about that?

Lube the clutch.

Ok done that now and it’s definately an improvement. I might back the clutch strength back off a bit next time but it’s v fiddly reassembling so will live with this for now.

STW at its best. Thanks.

Still not happy with this and it seems to make the indexing and b screw adjustment hard to get right with the clutch on.

Looking at the derailleur moving without a chain on it seems with the clutch on you don’t get the rearward movement by the cage that moves the jockey wheel away from the larger cogs as you shift. Clutch seems to be stopping this movement.

So is it knackered or just needs adjusting? Have a weekend riding ahead and so could ride with it off I suppose but would risk shipping my chain over every bump…

Do you have an N/W on the front?

Yes. An oval one.

I had this with a 10 speed XT rear mech, the clutch was knackered and resisted movement through the jockey wheel carrier. Multiple attempts to lube the clutch and back off the resistance still didn’t resolve it so sent it back to CRC who replaced it FOC (within the XT 2 year guarantee). Everything running fine since.

No time for a swap out now, will have to ride it with clutch off.